Our clients have achieved a major victory in their campaign to improve the rights of service personnel to be able to communicate freely and without interference from the MoD about their experiences of sexual assault and harassment in service. Our clients are two survivors of rape and sexual harassment who have been prevented from communicating with the press or Parliament about their experiences, because of an over-broad and deliberately intimidating policy that has prevented service personnel from speaking publicly about any matter without first seeking the consent of the MoD. After more than 4 years of litigation, the MoD has finally accepted that their communications policy has been unlawful all this time. The Guardian has reported on the case today, here.
You can read more about the background to the policy and the legal challenge here: https://centreformilitaryjustice.org.uk/rape-survivors-take-the-mod-to-court-to-secure-service-personnel-access-to-the-press-and-parliament/
The MoD has already replaced the unlawful policy with a new policy – which remains, in our view, unlawful too. So the challenge will continue. But getting the MoD to accept that its original policy amounted to a violation of Articles 8, 10 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the rights to privacy, freedom of expression and not to be discriminated against, respectively) is a huge achievement for these brave young women that are bringing this challenge for the benefit of all service personnel.
The clients are represented by Emma Norton, Lucy Baston & Sandeep Michael at the CMJ, and barristers Oliver Sanders KC and Emma-Louise Fenelon at 1 Crown Office Row. The case has been supported by Law For Change.